CHENNAI: She couldn’t help but squeal at the sight of the ‘pick any for `50’ sign at one of the stalls at the Chennai book fair. A Kavitha and her friends, all students of College of Engineering, Guindy quickly grabbed a dozen books from the shelves, their excited chatter filling the rather stuffy halls each time they spotted a favourite title.
While it is often debated if the younger generation has lost sight of literary pursuits that defined much of their previous generations, as far as the Chennai book fair is concerned, girls in their late teens and twenties seemed to have a more reassuring presence.
Although men turned out in large numbers at the fair, there was a distinctive, if not absolute, absence of adolescent and young adult male readers in the crowd.
Asked if boys of her age didn’t share the same enthusiasm for reading, Kavitha said was only fiction that they were not too keen on. “The boys I know generally read for the duty of reading. They do read some technical books, but basically, the ones I know are just lazy.”
In fact, added her friend S Keerthana, two boys supposed to join them at the fair were no-shows.
Three of the four boys in 17 to 25 age group that Express spoke to at random from the crowd were UPSC aspirants looking for subject textbooks or were preparing for bank exams.
“Boys have a lot of options for evening activities unlike girls. So, it could be the reason they are not seen here and they don’t have time to read novels too,” said P George, a 23-year-old UPSC aspirant.
Some youngsters said men were more open to digital reading than women. The trend was perhaps reflected in the Tata literature survey in 2014 in which although a majority of men and women preferred printed books, the percentage of men opting to go digital (25%) was slightly higher than women (17%).
Trying to put the reading habits of men into perspective, Aravindan A, a 22-year-old UPSC consultant, said it was only in college that many boys pick up the habit of reading.
“When young, we are encouraged to go out and play while girls are encouraged to stay at home and so, they turn to books and boys, on the other hand, develop reading habits late in life,” said Aravindan
According to Rajesh G, who works in Bahrain and was here for vacation, his friends were more interested in cinema. If they were to choose between a book and an adaptation of the book into a movie, chances are they would prefer watching the movie, he said.
Gandhi Kannadhasan, President of the Book sellers and publishers Association of South India (BAPASI) said it had been this way for years. He added from experience that if girls come on a budget of Rs 1,000, they purchase for Rs 200 or Rs 300 more.
“Whereas, boys will buy books for Rs 500 and use the remaining for all the other things that they want to do,” he said.However, young men seemed to be writing a lot more than young women if the visitors to a publishing agency in the fair were any indication.
“We’ve definitely had more men than women walking in with their manuscripts this time at the fair in the 20 to 25 age group” said Soorya Narayan of Notion press publishing and consulting.